The Queue: Join me in a declaration of war against the Tillers

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

Azeroth hear me!

It is true what many of you have heard. The farmers have gathered a secret army and as I speak that army is drawing nearer to our home. Believe me when I say we have a difficult time ahead of us -- but if we are to be prepared for it we must first shed our fear of it. I stand hear before you now truly unafraid!

Why? Because I believe something you do not? No! I stand here without fear because I remember. I remember that I am hear not because of the path that lay before me... but because of the path that lies behind me! I remember that for one hundred years we have not cared about these farmers! I remember that for one hundred years we have waged war to destroy each other and those that are around us. I remember that which matters most!

We are still here!

Tonight let us send a message to that army of farmers! Let us shake this land! Tonight let us tremble these walls of earth, steel, and stone! Let us be heard from the shallows of the Jade Forest to the top of Kun-Lai Summit! Tonight let us make them remember this is Azeroth and we are not afraid of them!

Tonight, let us declare war on the Tillers!

Coffeehouse commented:

I truly believe this is going to raise the bar on what an expansion should be. I agree with you that this is the best expansion to date from blizz.

I agree with this raising of the bar... and I'm going to make a prediction: the positive word of mouth this expansion is getting will turn into more sales and larger subscription numbers. I suspect that we're going to see WoW's population rise above the 10M mark again within a year's time.

Besides the positive experience going on with the expansion, there's a couple other reasons for this:

First, there is no other AAA MMORPG out there, nor one on the horizon. Star Wars is having a crisis of it's own (one that I really hope gets fixed), and Guild Wars 2 seems to be having the typical problem Cataclysm had -- lack of end game and reason to continue heavily beyond leveling. The Secret World, which was great, has somehow failed to attract the critical mass of players it needs to become a viral hit. So we're left with WoW again as the only major player in this sphere, and that in itself will lead many people back with the realization that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Second, as I just alluded to, the strong end game component ofMists is going to make keeping the subscription active longer an attractive idea for many people. This is going to correlate to higher numbers overall when such benchmarks are taken. If more people keep playing longer, and more people are signing on because of the word of mouth and the lack of options, then total subscription numbers will go up at a high rate.

Finally, there is nothing major being released that will draw WoW player's attention away. There is no Skyrim or Star Wars this year (as there was last year when the subscription numbers dropped). There is no Diablo III, and there isn't a major genre busting release on the scale of WoW that we're expecting. Quite simply, the time is ripe for WoW's engagement to go up.

So at the end of the day, or rather at the end of the year ... if Blizzard has done the end game right (for the masses) ... then I fully expect WoW's numbers to jump.

And if I can go out on a limb: I wouldn't be surprised if they jump big.

Kelderek asked:

I'm enjoying the new quest rewards that ONLY apply to my class (no more strength plate for this druid!), but it seems the system only gives me gear for my active specialization. That's nice, but I level feral and dungeon/raid resto. How does Blizzard envision us gearing up our non-leveling specs for dungeons without letting a lot of players die as we *slowly* get dungeon gear?

Hit up the "Adventuring Supplies" NPCs near a major quest hub. They've got all the off spec gear you'll need.

I also want to be sure that I mention people shouldn't place major emphasis on gear right now. It's important, for sure, but skill plays a larger factor in dungeon running than gear does. Good players in offset greens and blues are going to rock the heroics like no one's business.

Jessica asked:

Q4tQ: what's the loot reset timer on the MoP world bosses? We downed the Sha 2x in one day and only got loot (cache or gear) for the first down. Is it a daily reset or a weekly one? Or were we bugged?

Once a week, just like raid bosses and LFR.

PurpleTiger asked:

With the dailies limit removed and there being so much to do at 90, are there any addons, prefer that over Alt-Tabbing, that give a list of all the dailies (at least the currently available ones) in Pandaria?

The dailies are set by the server, so there's no way to tell what dailies are available until you hit up the quest givers and find out. It'd be nice though if Blizzard exposed this, but I kind of doubt it ... it's part of the way they're getting you out into the world more (which I love, by the way).

Davy gave some snark:

Such hyperboles. Do you ever play any other game than WoW, Mr. Matthew Rossi? My guess is no.

Reality is yes.Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!